More than 30,000 scientific papers could be flawed by contaminated cells, a study has found.
The report from Radboud University in the Netherlands revealed that 451 cell cultures used in thousands of experiments are contaminated.
Researchers are warning that these experiments could have led to authorities erroneously approving scores of ineffective treatments.
Some of the contaminated cells’ origins date back to 1951, and they have been used in laboratories for upwards of six decades.
The report’s researchers have said that contaminated cells are still used in research environments and are warning that the problem deserves the urgent attention of the medical community.